The sideline show for the USC-UCLA game should be as interesting as the game.

USC coach Lane Kiffin and UCLA coach Jim Mora are worth watching.

They own big personalities, perfect for staying relevant in LosAngeles. They like to talk, which adds to the drama of this rivalry. Or any old regular week in the season.

Mora, the first-year coach who has turned the Bruins program right-side up at 8-2, and Kiffin - under more scrutiny than ever after his once-national championship-contending team already has three losses and controversies to boot - won't disappoint Saturday.

They're nearly the show.

Seemingly every week, one or the other has been in the doghouse with his ability to simply talk or switch jerseys or deflate balls or challenge a Twitter imposter or have a meltdown in practice.

Mora didn't take long to say something offensive during training camp, when he fired this shot on a radio station: "At least we don't have murders a block from our campus."

Two USC graduate students were shot and killed near USC's campus in April.

Not long after, Mora apologized, and Kiffin said he didn't think it was something to joke about.

These two aren't cozy enough to be BFFs, but they do communicate.

They actually like one another. As for this image that they might not like each other much, both say that's not the case.

"I talk to him and text him," Mora said. "I wouldn't say we're friends, just because I haven't spent enough time with him to be friends. I respect him. When a guy like Greg Knapp respects him, you have to respect him."

Knapp, a mutual friend, is the offensive coordinator for the Oakland Raiders and held that position when Kiffin was head coach there.

Asked if they're friends, Kiffin echoed Mora's comments: "I haven't been around him long enough to be great friends. We haven't been around each other that much. I have a lot of respect for him. (Our relationship) is really good. It's professional. We're similar. We've been through a lot of the same things.

"We've both been in the NFL. Both of our dads are coaches. We've both been fired. We were both head coaches early in our careers."

The story goes that he gave Mora real-estate advice when Mora moved to Los Angeles, but Kiffin laughed. Kiffin did say his wife, Layla, looked at a house in Manhattan Beach that Kiffin said Mora eventually bought. It's right down the street from Kiffin's old house.

So technically, a Kiffin has been to the Mora house. Asterisk provided.

After someone pretending to be UCLA freshman Randall Goforth tweeted that UCLA would win this week's game, Mora nearly lost his cool publicly. He called the imposter a "scumbag" and challenged him or her to go to campus. Then he won over Kiffin.

"He called me and wanted to make sure we knew it wasn't his player," Kiffin said. "That doesn't happen if you have a bad relationship with someone."

Mora also lost his temper during a football practice when a cameraman was in the wrong place on the field. Mora kicked the cameraman, other media and UCLA's sports information staff out of practice, then publicly ripped a longtime sports information employee, insinuating the integrity of his program was compromised by "the incompetence of some people."

It didn't take but an hour or so for word to make its way to USC that morning, and Kiffin started his news conference with this zinger:

"I love my SID."

These two playfully spar.

Kiffin had his own media spat, allowing one post-practice interview session to last 28 seconds before he walked off in a huff because a reporter asked a question about a player's injury.

Both coaches are ultra-paranoid, this season allowing media to attend practices but not to report anything seen, injuries or otherwise. The major newspapers in Southern California responded by refusing to cover practice since reporters weren't allowed to report information.

"You don't want there to be someone across town that's really sensitive," Kiffin said. "I'm not saying there's ever been someone there like that, that's not my point. You may make a little joke, like that SID thing, and I'm sure he didn't think twice about it, like I wouldn't have. I think it's good to have somebody over there that's relaxed and isn't going to freak out about what you say when the media spins something."

Mora, 50, and Kiffin, 37, first met when Kiffin was a high schooler and Monte Kiffin was the defensive coordinator with the New Orleans Saints. Mora was the secondary coach and said he's learned so much from Lane's dad.

Kiffin has had his share of issues, having players switching jerseys to confuse opponents and most recently Deflategate, with a student manager taking the air out of footballs before the Oregon game. The student manager was fired, and USC was fined $25,000.

Their laundry lists of drama are long, but that only makes the rivalry more interesting, amusing and enticing.

Keep your eyes on those sidelines. You never know what Kiffin or Mora will do or say next, but you know it's worth watching.